Jewish Weddings

Jews, like others, created rituals to solemnize and celebrate the joining of husband to wife, of family to family. The roots of Jewish weddings as we know them are found in early rabbinic literature—in the Mishnah and the Talmud. At that time, the creation of the new family involved two distinct stages: betrothal, which required negotiation and agreement on the terms of the marriage (which were to some degree established according to pre-established standards), and the marriage itself. The obligations of husband to wife were recorded in the ketubbah, a kind of prenuptial contract, and the wedding was marked by the recitation of seven blessings (the sheva berakhot). Later the two stages were combined into the wedding as we know it. The practice of conducting a wedding under a chuppah, so much associated with Jewish weddings, was introduced only in the late Middle Ages.

Ketubbah

A Ketubbah, meaning “writ,” is, traditionally, a pre-nuptual contract that stipulates the obligations a groom takes upon himself should he divorce or pre-decease his wife. Through the Middle Ages, the vast majority of ketubbot (pl. of ketubah) looked like common contracts, which were very rarely enhanced with simple decoration. But beginning in early modernity, ketubbot were more commonly magnificently decorated, and they remain one of the most outstanding media for Jewish artistic creativity.